Talk:Celtic onomastics

Latest comment: 10 years ago by Dougweller in topic *Rigantona

*Rigantona

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  • Rhiannon, from *Rigantona "Great Queen"
  • Gwenhwyfar, from *Uindā Seibrā "White Phantom"
  • Brigid, from *Brigantia "the High one"

Dougweller (talk · contribs) removed the first of these, with summary the * means the word is hypothetical, this is from Edwa. Is *Rigantona more hypothetical than the other two? What's Edwa? —Tamfang (talk) 01:05, 18 November 2013 (UTC)Reply

Sorry, mouse ran away from me. It should have been Edward Anwyl - according to Ronald Hutton he's the first person to argue that the names Rhiannon and Terynon "could have derived from a pair of reconstructed Celtic originals, *Rigantona and *Tigernos..(the asterisks customarily indicate hypothetical words reconstructed by modern philologists): once more the concept of an ancient Great Mother Goddess was an explicit influence in his thought". He then points out that "there is absolutely no ancient evidence for a cultof *Rigantona and *Tigernos...). Other sources call the contruction Proto=Celtic. I don't see how we can call this a Celtic word. Dougweller (talk) 06:24, 18 November 2013 (UTC)Reply